Saturday, February 27, 2016

Four new babies


At last, I am home in Swaziland after burying my dear mom this past Monday.  I did a mid-week post with a Eulogy to her, so if you are interested in knowing about the amazing woman who changed my life’s trajectory when she adopted me then please go to: http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2016/02/dear-mom.html

I am physically and emotionally exhausted.  I have travelled to the US and Canada twice in the past month and have spent 23 of the past 35 days coming or going. Today and tomorrow I will rest and try to remember where I left off with my job over a month ago.

Today’s blog will be short, but it will tell you about four new babies that are either here or that we believe are coming soon.

#1 and #2 – a set of male twins, born May 10, 2015 (and they are our 8th set of twins).  They were named Samson and Samuel by their mother. Their father ran away when he heard the mother was pregnant and then shortly after birth the mother dumped the babies with their Grandmother leaving them to starve in a very rural homestead.  They have been in and out of hospital for malnutrition and finally we were called to help the life-threatening situation.  On Wednesday they were placed at the El Roi Baby home and on Friday we received a call from some neighbors thanking us for helping with the babies. They said that the Grandmother was looking better already as she was now able to eat again because she didn’t have to give all of her food to the babies (“all of her food” was thin porridge made of ground maize – nothing else).

Note the size difference between the twins.

This is Samuel - 10 pounds at 9-months old

This is Samson - 18 pounds at 9-months old
#3 – is a 2-month old whose mother is mentally ill.  The newborn is in danger and the police were to take the mother to the Psychiatric hospital and the baby was to come to us. Unfortunately, the police went on strike this weekend so all plans were put on hold. We are unable to find/receive the baby without the assistance of the police. So we wait, and we pray that this tiny little one is alive on Monday and will come home to us.

#4 – I got a phone call while in Canada from a woman who said that a baby had been dumped and she needed my help.  I directed her to the proper government office for assistance, but she said she had been there and was turned away. I put my Swazi team on the case and have learned that the woman who called is the mother of the 3-month old baby. She was diagnosed with cancer and send to South Africa, where they removed both of her breasts.  I don’t know the order that this all happened in, but she says her baby is starving to death because she can’t breast feed.  We will meet with her on Monday and see if she needs bottles and formulas or if there is more to the story that is causing her to want to give away her newborn baby.

And that’s how it goes here.  No babies for a month and then calls about four of them in 18 hours. 

I will update you on them all next Saturday.

February has been ANGEL month at Heart for Africa and all of our posts have been geared towards getting ALL of the children at the baby home fully funded. This is the last time I will ask for a while, but would you consider becoming a monthly donor today to help support Sampson, Samuel of the other two who may arrive any day?  I thank you for any support you can give.



Live from Swaziland… I am going back to bed.

Janine

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